Music theory books...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roel
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Roel

Roel

That SMART guy.
I know that their are a few other peeps around here that get a kick from music theory and classical composition...
So, what books did you read, abuse or just bought ages ago and nicely put on the shelf?

I'm using a dutch study book on harmony on my lessons, almost through with it, then the teacher just teaches... :confused: Oh well...
I read another dutch book on theory, just all round guide. Little bit of everything.

Than the interesting stuff:
Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Musical Composition. Very good book explaining all about motives, sentences, all that stuff, but from a composers point of view. VERY inspiring. Also has a chapter on self criticism and on small forms for the beginning composer. Reading this one at the moment.

On the shelf, waiting for time to read them:
- Contemporary Harmony : Romanticism Through the Twelve-Tone Row by Ludmila Ulehla, rather advanced, starts with eleventh and thirteenth chords. (Which is kinda advanced from a classical point of view.)
- Orchestration by Cecil Forsyth. S. Adler was out of print, didn't want to just sit while waiting for the next edition...
- The Jazz piano book and The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine. Offcourse...
- A book on music psychology, found it in a used books store...

I'm thinking of ordering Schoenberg's Structural functions of harmony too. Like the title, and the other book is so good...
 
arent these guys Dutch?.............
 

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hmmm... don't know.... but I think this guy is dutch....
 

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music theory...

have you noticed when flipping through the musician magazines the David Burge perfect pitch courses? He actually has two of them: Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch (and I think he offers a deal on getting both in one package)

I did the Relative Pitch one.. it's basically ear training.. and it's a lot of work.. but it covers about 95% of music theory.. It took me a couple years to get through.. but it was definately worth it.. I can pick out intervals off the radio.. and I can usually write out a melody in my head if I need to..

I tried the Perfect Pitch one.. but at the time I bought it the CD version wasn't available.. a little too difficult for me at the time..

Cy
 
perfect pitch

Hey, you've done those perfect pitch courses? Wow, they've been in magazines forever.... with a picture of that cheesey guy with the bad haircut.

Tell me about the perfect pitch stuff...what do you do in order to identify notes like that? How do they teach you to teach yourself perfect pitch? Seem to remember something about colors...

Pete
 
I looked into that stuff when his advertisements ran some 10+ years ago.. I bought the whole package which at that time was a box of like 40 cassettes.. I can tell you that the course is definately worth the money.. however, in order to work his method you would need two things: patience, and a musical partner to play notes for you while you guessed what they were (he didn't play notes on the tape.. I think his reasoning was that you would lose the pitch color with the stretch of the cassette tape).. Now I see the course is on CD, and I'm pretty sure you can work on the lessons by yourself..

But despite that hassle I have no doubt that his method works.. it's hard to describe in words, but he actually gave you a taste of what to listen for.. he played an F# on piano and sang with it in this weird way that perfectly captured the essence of the tone.. But the tone quality is extremely subtle and it takes practice to be able to recognize the tone among a bunch of other notes.. and we are just talking on a piano here.. it takes even more development to recognize it on other instruments, not to mention other sounds, like guitar distortion..

I didn't have a partner to work with and it was too difficult for me to do on my own.. so I put it away and worked the relative pitch part which you can work by yourself and you don't need to "hear" pitch color.. Perfect pitch involves hearing a single tone and determining what it is based on its pitch color.. Relative pitch involves determining the quality of two or more notes based on their relative distances...

Relative pitch, in my opinion, is the absolute best way to learn music theory.. because you are actually HEARING the theory as opposed to reading it in a book.. it covers intervals and all the basic chords from major and minor triads to 11th and 13th chords.. not to mention canons and basic chord progressions.. the final exam of the course was that he told you the first note of a complex arrangement and you had to write down the rest of the arrangement based on what he played on the tape..

Oh.. and one great benefit from relative pitch: you can sing in tune with far greater accuracy because you know the distance your voice needs to hit...


Cy
 
I have also worked with both of David Burge's courses too. I agree they are worth the time/money spent.

Perfect pitch is difficult to practice because of the need for a partner. The reason you need a partner is because the drilling must be done on a live instrument and when you make mistakes you need someone to correct you. It must be done on a live instrument because the 'pitch colors' are very subtle and it is quite difficult for the ear without perfect pitch to hear these colors on recordings (which color the sound) or even unfamiliar instruments (ie. pianist trying to hear pitch color on a xylophone.)

I have had a couple periods of time where I was able to get a partner and I tell you, these exercises are excellent for you musically. At first I was unable to get a partner and I tried doing the 'solo' exercises that he mentions on the tapes. It wasn't very productive. BUT once I got a partner and started doing the 'real' exercises -- oh man, it was amazing. It was like a sleeping part of my brain had been awakened. All of sudden I had sooo many ideas for new songs. Everything I heard just somehow sounded better. A new lust for music (just like in the ads.) I didn't get very far (identifying 4 notes, played 2 notes at a time) but if I can work out the time again with my partner I'd love to start doing it again.

Now, the Relative Pitch course, this can be done on your own. It's not as 'enlightening' as the perfect pitch exercises but I think some would consider it more beneficial. Because you do learn basic theory and also, more importantly, you develop your ear to be able to hear the things that music theory attempts to describe. It's tedious compared to the perfect pitch course. It's not as much 'fun'. It's mostly homework and drills. But it's very good for your ear which will 'set you free' as a musician. Since I've done the course (didn't finish, up to level 4) I am able to sing and write harmony much better than I had previously, with much much greater vocal acuity. I also can pick out songs much more quickly and am much better at improvising. In the past I was never able to play jazz solos, I always had the 'sound' in my head but I was never able to find the right notes with my fingers. Now I can and realize that I couldn't before because my ear wasn't developed enough.

It's too bad that most musicians underestimate the importance of having a good ear.

Sorry Roel, I know this isn't what you were asking for.
 
heheh

wanna know how i learned to have perfect pitch?

simple. (not really)

I just was concert master of elementry-freshmen orchestra and hopefully will be next year, had to tune the instruments every day by ear. *BOGUS!*
 
My last piano teacher did a fun exercise with me... He put on a jazz record, played a simple lick, I repeated that lick. He started really simple, and increased the number of notes and the speed gradually... Never knew I could play licks that fast. Really fun, and while training your relative pitch, you learn alot of licks, develop speed and technique, and best of all: you're playing good music, really sounds good.

Actually, the goal of studying harmony is not to get the theory, but to study the theory, and in the meanwhile learning what everything sounds like, refining your listening skills, and getting to the point where you don't need the theory anymore, and just know what it'll sounds like... Learning to see what you hear and hear what you see. (As I read on the internet last week. :D )
 
Yeah, I guess they go hand-in-hand.

Ear training is like English Listening Comprehension while Theory is like Grammar or Literature or something like that. To be well-rounded you'll need to study them both.

I don't know any good music theory books. I only know one that I used in high school for AP Music Theory. It's called Tonal Harmony. It covers all the basics. Starts with notes, rhythm, meter, intervals, chords, goes on to voice leading, cadences, transposition, etc etc. Can't recall everything, it's been a number of years.
 
Roel said:

On the shelf, waiting for time to read them:
- Orchestration by Cecil Forsyth. S. Adler was out of print, didn't want to just sit while waiting for the next edition...
- The Jazz piano book and The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine. Offcourse...
Click to expand...

Ol' Cecil is fun. Yes, orchestration has changed a bit since he wrote it (some instruments and techniques advancing, some instruments [re]appearing and some disappearing from the scene entirely), but it's very readable and has more than a few entertaining moments.

Levine's books are dense, but again well worth the read. I'd also suggest checking out Dan Haerle's books on Jazz theory if you get stuck with Levine. I've found that there are times when Dan's perspective was just what I was looking for to get me past something that wasn't making sense in Levine.

One sequence that I recommend a lot in learning harmony is Piston-Levine-Persichetti.

-dh
 
What does Piston cover in his harmony book? I'm doing a basic course, covering everything up to ninth chords and altered chords. The book of Ulhema will take me further for the classical harmony part. And Schoenbergs books will give me more insight. Would Piston be still interesting in that perspective?
 
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